Superb themed fun puzzle from Virgilius with some really clever clues. All the acrosses are pairs in one form or another. Solving time, 20 mins.
* = anagram
1 BOO-BOO Boo twice
4 CORN WALL Corn has ears and “walls have ears”!
9 DESERT RAT British WWII soldier in North Africa
11 Alfred NOYES NO YES
12 MERCHANTABLE Merchant Seaman and Able Seaman! Marketable ie selling like hot cakes
16 EPACTS EP (Epistles) ACTS (Book of Acts), both from New Testament (NT)
17 CRACKPOT CRACK POT
19 SET POINT Definition refers to tennis, a point which if won by the player leading will win the set.
20 PICNIC pic rhymes with nic child’s play = easy, like a picnic
22 HARRISON FORD Two names of former Presidents of the US – there were two named Harrison. The actor Harrison Ford. nmsindy is v weak on films so looked at the Internet Movie Data Base, this suggests that the reference may be to HF playing a President James Marshall in a film called “Air Force One” but v happy to be advised otherwise.
26 CONDO CON DO US term, short for CONDOMINIUM, an apartment owned by the occupier, I think.
27 NURSELING NURSE LING (two names of fish) A little one = nurseling (child)
28 RINGSIDE RING SIDE (Two groups pursuing goals together!) Really good, this
30 JOB LOT Both are Old Testament characters. Definition of a miscellaneous collection of items sold together.
DOWN
1 BED (plot) I’M Definition: to increase gloom
2 OBSERVANTS O (old) and B (bishops) in SERVANTS (retainers). A Franciscan friar of stricter rule, unusual word, but quite easy to work out from the wordplay.
3 OAR A (area) in OR (soldiers – other ranks) oar = row (vb)
5 OUTLAWRY (LOUT)* AWRY (crooked)
6 NON-ELECTION (Client no-one)* Glad we were given a fairly obvious anagram for this. I think what is in mind is where an election takes place but is not regarded as fair or is otherwise flawed it might be dubbed a ‘non-election’ ie a political failure.
7 ARYL Radical from chemistry – hidden in ‘revolutionARY Life’
8 LAST Great double definition and surface
10 RANK Double definition, the second by example, ‘general’ is a (military) rank
13 HOT POTATOES (TO TO TO SHAPE)* Another v clever one
14 SPONSORIAL (prison als0)*
15 OTIC Relating to the ear (organ). Alternate (even) letters of lOsT pIeCe
16 EASY Easy as pie, or like a piece of cake
18 UNIRONED Seamless join at ‘press/association’, another very good clue R (right) in UNION (association) ED (editor) Definition, needing press
21 TSAR ST (raised) ie reversed referring to St Peter (example of a saint) A R (monarch = king)
The whole clue defines TSAR in a &lit way, referring to Peter the Great of Russia
23 DIG (appreciate) IT
24 SCAR Oscar award (from films) less head (first letter)
25 ANON Similar structure CANON (rule) less C
26 EGO Excellent Middle letter of FrEud work (GO) & lit
Agree, nmsindy. And you are right about Harrison Ford.
Thanks, nms – most enjoyable and entertaining crossword from Virgilius today, with a neat theme and some very clever clueing.
I found this somewhat hard going and struggled to get into the across clues. I found things like 28 and 19 a bit strange. I’m still not quite sure why a ring would be pursuing a goal, although I can see that a side would be if it meant a football side. I probably over-complicated some of the clues – for example, I was convinced that 9 must be something to do with army ants. I hadn’t heard of an epact and don’t know much about the bible, so 16 was a bit of a struggle.
Some very clever stuff but in 2 down doesn’t the wording produce ‘bimed’? ‘I am’ in ‘bed’? Or is there a crossword meaning of ‘in’ that is after, behind or under?
A ring of conspiritors pursue a goal, struggled most with the short clues today. Guessed epacts but it’s not a word in my regular vocabulary.
Hi JP
In 2dn, ‘in’ is simply a link word, a device regularly used in puzzles. The clue needs to be read as BED I’M [can be seen] in BEDIM.
Hi, nms. My reading of NON-ELECTION was simply that if someone stands for election and fails then it’s (in a sense) a non-election.
A fantastically inventive puzzle. My favourite of the acrosses was Cornwall. Also love the +lit clue for EGO.
Re 4ac there’s a place in Kent called Headcorn, although the Celtic connection wouldn’t obviously work. Did slow me down in the crossword as the train was going there…
Enjoyable but not quite a 20a for me, mainly because all I could think of for 15d was ‘stop’ (as in organ) although it didn’t quite fit the wordplay. So then I was trying to find _i_n_p for a children’s game or something. Oh well, you can’t win ’em all.